Anime Hajime Review: Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai

Series Synopsis

Yuta Togashi (voiced by Jun Fukuyama) can't wait to start high school and leave his middle school self behind as time of his life he desperately wants to forget. For you see, Yuta once believed himself to be the legendary Dark Flame Master whose powers were unrivaled and mere mortals couldn’t even hope to comprehend the true extent of his abilities. Even thinking about it causes Yuta great embarrassment.

Everything was going well. Yuta met new people, was having typical conversations with his classmates, and no one was aware of his past...mostly. To his horror there is one who appears to know, Rikka Takanashi (voiced by Maaya Uchida).

Unlike Yuta who gave up spell casting and fantasy worlds, Rikka embraces them. She is the wielder of the Wicked Eye, which is why she can always be seen wearing an eye-patch, and Yuta is her destined companion.

Rikka refuses to leave Yuta alone and slowly the two begin to attract a circle of equally interesting characters.

This was a world he hoped to escape from and now Yuta is suddenly thrown into a difficult spot. Does he try to continue his quest for a “normal” life or will Rikka become someone much more important to him then he would've ever imagined?

Series Positives

Yuta

You can't see it but I’m sitting here clapping and smiling like an idiot. I really f@#$ing like this one; from beginning to end. Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai is funny, a touchingly sweet love story, and everything else about it is fantastic.

Rikka

And there’s more. There’s a lot more to this series and I can't wait to check them out. We’re talking OVAs, a second season, and a feature film. There’s a lot to see and I think I started with the right one.

Anyway, this show was great and I’m going to try to keep this review as on target as possible. Ramblings might still happen and I'll do my best to make them as comprehensible as possible.

As a comedy it’s brilliantly paced and brilliantly executed. There’s a lot of overt physical humor, but also a lot of detail gags in the background. On-point reactions, subtle gestures, and there were plenty of unexpected and random moments which had me busting up. Sure at times the jokes overstepped their bounds and were a little much, but these were few and far between.

As a romance it doesn’t hit until about halfway through. However when it does, god damn it when it does, it is so addicting. This was a refreshing reminder of why I love this genre so much. When done right, it doesn’t matter if it’s corny or realistic; these are the types of shows that grab a hold of you. You want to see characters get together and definitely by the end of Chuunibyou I wanted Yuta and Rikka to be a thing. They were both strange and out there, yet that was why they worked; it was why they were so great.

And of course Rikka is adorable. She is so cute and she is one of my favorite elements of this show, but there are also many others.

Yuta throughout was kind of an asshole. He slowly broke out of this during the series and you eventually understood why he was the way he was. As the story came to ahead, Yuta’s jerkiness turned into an internal conflict. Yes he was screwing up, it was clear he was screwing up, and Yuta himself knew he was screwing up, but he couldn’t figure out how to fix it. The right answer was being very illusive.

If everything would have stopped there, Chuunibyou could claim that it did enough and it would be right. However, it kept going.

Imagination

The use of imagination is what brought this series over the edge because it was used perfectly. Chuunibyou knew what to show and what not to show. Things got big, but then they got small, and it was all around wonderful.

That doesn’t make even the slightest bit of sense because there are actually two parts to my point.

The first is the actual fantasy. There were fights, there were epic fights. There was magic, there were lights, there were many pretty colors, there was fast moving action, things were happening all over the place. Yet this was all done in the mind, but it was manifested into a grand spectacle which was absurdly entertaining.

Rikka sees a world that is bigger than what it is. Countering her mindset are people saying her outlook is nothing more than a delusion and a way to escape reality. The tragedy of it all, this wasn’t what was going on.

Yes her way of thinking and interacting with everything and everyone around her isn’t what you would expect the average teenager to do, but Rikka still managed to find friends who she could be herself with. Regardless, it made sense why there would be resistance to this and it plays into the second part of the show’s use of imagination.

All the fights and all the mysticism are clearly from imagination. Think back to when you were a kid and you would go on legendary adventures that would play out in your mind. A stick became a sword. A cat became a beast. That kind of stuff. You never let the laws of physics govern your play and how this series tapped into this was what first hooked onto me.

These battles that would occur were destructive and over the top. Then there would be a quick flash to what was really going on and the juxtaposition between the amazing and the lackluster was fun…mostly. Chuunibyou touched on another aspect of this.

Rikka saw everything in her way, but not everyone else did. What happens when the fantasy world and the real world clash? In the beginning when someone wouldn’t play along, to Rikka they came off as a truly powerful opponent and it made for a good laugh. It didn’t stay that way.

Rikka didn’t start acting the way she did until after a sudden loss in her past. To her family, these two events were linked and it appeared as though Rikka was in denial. I’m convinced she wasn’t doing any of this to escape or avoid what was really going on. This was just how she saw things.

There could have been a little denial towards what had happened, but Rikka didn’t want to deny it. She simply didn’t know how to accept it and fantasy became her medium. However, when there were so many people telling her to stop, grow up, and accept reality, it hurt because that's what she was doing but in her own way.

While Rikka may have been the center of attention, Yuka was going through something similar. There was a conflict in his mind and in his heart. He wanted to give up his past because he thought it wasn’t the person he should be. Once Rikka came into his life, he wasn't so unsure. To make it worse, he eventually had to be the person to try and convince Rikka to abandon her “childish” ways.

Throughout the show, people kept giving reasons why Rikka had to give up her magic. This was a serious problem because Yuta couldn’t think of a counter argument. The answer was brilliantly simplistic and once Yuta figured it out, it made the last act of this series outstanding.

Series Negatives

I’m stretching to think of anything to put here.

Again Yuta was a bit of a dick, but again you saw where he was coming from. He was doubtful, but this is a time when this wasn’t annoying as s@#$. He didn’t doubt because it was a character trait, he was actually having a dilemma because he really didn’t have the answer. So while he might sometimes get on your nerves, Yuta’s actions have plenty of justifications.

Another issue I had, and as a reminder I’m grasping at straws here, came in the final episode. Here the story relied a little too heavily on deus ex machina; things showed up which solved certain problems.

I won’t give anything away, but let me set it up. Yuta got a letter which gave him his clarity. It told him exactly what he needed to do. Where this letter came from and especially who wrote it is a little far-fetched. It simply showed up. He didn’t find it and it was certainly never there from the start. It was just sitting on his desk waiting for him.

Final Thoughts

I imagine it’s obvious at this point, but let me say it one more time. I loved this show. Hopefully I was able to express why as clearly as possible, but there’s only so many different ways I can say I like something.

Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai is a really funny comedy and a really sweet romance. Rikka is adorable and Yuta can get on your nerves, but you still root for him. All this blended in with crazy absurdity, pitting fantasy and reality against each other. This one’s great.

I can’t recommend this show any more and there’s still more to go. I don’t think I’ll do separate reviews on the OVAs, but the second season and the film you can be damn sure I’ll be checking out. This is a series which is will show up again and I am looking forward to it.

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